


death after life, spirits and sparrows

by attxntionreadxr



Category: Who Killed Markiplier? (Web Series)
Genre: A Date With Markiplier, Canon Era, Darkiplier Mark Fischbach, M/M, Post-Who Killed Markiplier?, Pre-Canon, Pre-Who Killed Markiplier?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:28:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28534437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attxntionreadxr/pseuds/attxntionreadxr
Summary: based off a twitter post and the song rat by penelope scott.betrayal, angst, and forgiveness."and the worst part is, i loved you"
Relationships: Damien | The Mayor (Who Killed Markiplier?) & Mark Fischbach
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. calm after a storm

"And you were beautiful and vulnerable and power and success

God damn, I fell for you, your flamethrowers, your tunnels, and your tech"

~

The cabin was dark, pitch black. The sound of saltwater dripping from the ceiling, hitting the floor with a soft  _ pat  _ every second droned on. The waves had covered every inch of the wooden walls, leaving no dryness anywhere. The fire was put out, suffocated by the storm. The first thing Damien noticed was his jacket. He hadn't been spared from the onslaught, and his fur jacket was drenched and sticking to his skin. He found himself propped upright against the fireplace, presumably washed up against it as the waves died down. Celine was nowhere to be found, and he smiled. She had slept. 

As the sun peeked over the windowsill, Damien found his vision was splitting, everything hazed with blue and red. Pushing against the brick, Damien stood up, wincing in slight pain. The destruction of this sanctuary hadn't been calm or kind and left him with blue and black bruises on what little he could see of his wind-torn skin. Leaning against the fireplace, Damien let his head fall back and took a breath. Saltwater that he hadn't noticed before seeped down his throat and he coughed, lungs rejecting the bitterness. 

William's voice echoed in the distance, the same voice and words he'd heard just mere hours ago. Before this world was torn to pieces.

Damien was entirely conscious now, knowing everything that had happened. Still, nothing made sense, but he was alive. Knowing this was a burden, and shouldering the responsibility of keeping himself and Celine safe was almost unbearable. 

Pushing off the brick, Damien stumbled across the cabin and walked through the door, acutely aware that he wasn't Damien. At least, not entirely.

He was Dark.

~

_"Have you ever killed a man, William?" Mark asked, waving around his finger as though it was a gun. Damien and William laughed. The three friends sat in their dorm, Damien laid across Mark's legs as the older had not left any feasible room for Damien to have his own space. William sat in the armchair closer to the fire._

_"I have not, I haven't even been fully accepted into the academy yet," William answered, fiddling with the tassels on his boots. "I cannot simply go up to a man and shoot him in cold blood without a military badge."_

_The young men had glasses of whiskey on the table, William's twice empty and Mark and Damien's untouched. The fire burned low as the three settled into easy banter, having known each other for their whole lives._

_"How is our dear Celine, hm?" William asked, gesturing to Damien who had been staring at the fire in silence._

_"She's enraged, our mother had her sent to a finishing school in the East because she had been refusing to meet suitors, preferring to parade around with witches," The mayor-to-be explained, smiling fondly at the memory of his twin. The other two laughed, rolling their eyes._

_Damien knew of their shared affections for his sister, keeping his grievances and jealousy at bay whenever Mark or William would bring her up with stars in their eyes._

_"She's been trying to get a writer to send letters to you both, she seems to like having you two wrapped around her finger," He continued, only to elect more raucous laughter from his friends._

_They were just friends sitting around a fire, nothing more to worry about than examinations and women._


	2. nothing left to love but everything

Time means nothing.

Clothes saturated from water, hair dark and stuck to his face, Damien stumbled past a brightly-lit disco. He could hear laughter and music coming from inside. Looking around, he saw a car parked outside, covered in papers. Damien made his way over to the new-looking vehicle and knelt to pick up a slightly crumpled piece of paper. Scrawled across the sheet were barely legible sentences, but he could make out 'William J. Barnum' repeated many times within the mess. Drawing the paper into his fist, Damien pushed himself up and made his way inside, wincing with every step.

His body was weaker than he'd expected, walking for miles to reach this small town that he didn't recognize. He was used to travelling when he was the mayor, but this was different. He had none of his friends or advisors to lean on or trust here. And he had his mind, broken and hazy, nothing like it once was.

As Damien pushed back the beaded curtain, he had to squint past the bright, beaming lights that soared across the room, holding his shivering hand up to his brow. Casting a shadow over his eyes, he looked up at the stage where he could make out William and Abe, dancing around to odd music. Was this a fever dream, Damien questioned silently, unfocused eyes wide.

"Damien?" A voice shouted from the platform, belonging to William. He was adorned in an odd wig, brightly coloured, and dressed in garish clothes. This man had no resemblance to the Colonel that Damien knew, just a few months ago. Was it even months that he'd been living in that damn purgatory? Had it been days, weeks or even years?

"William?" Damien answered, reaching out to grab his old friend's hand. William took his hand firmly, smiling with a slightly unhinged look behind his eyes. What had happened?

"Old friend, I'm glad you're here!" William said excitedly, kneeling to meet Damien's eyes and grasping his friend's hand with both of his own. "I've been meaning to find you, and ask about a television programme that I've cooked up!" William continued to ramble as though nothing had happened within this time, and Damien found his eyes wandering and hazing over. 

The disco was so warm, but he felt all his energy leave his body, exhaustion taking him over despite his attempts to focus on William's face. Still clinging to his hand, Damien slid down the side of the stage he'd leant on, collapsing to the floor. 

How many nights had he spent asleep in that place, every time Celine would leave the cabin? How many hours had he slept the time away? Damien had walked so far, searching for someone, anyone. Never stopping for food, water or shelter. Time meant nothing anymore. His eyes finally slid closed, and William's concerned mutterings became muffled.

The last thing he could remember before falling prey to himself as William's hand on the side of his face.

~

_Celine never wrote to Damien, only his friends. She had a horrible habit of leading men on, and the entire town was well aware of it. Celine's love for her twin brother was often overshadowed by the suitors that she loved to toy with._

_Damien never took offence to this, knowing his sister's real love was for the seamstress down the road. He also never had the patience to tell her off for her games. But eventually, he knew that Celine's love for both his best friends would drive them apart._

_The college boy had more to worry about either way. His budding affections for his close friend Mark had him up late more nights than he'd like to admit, making excuses to spend time with the arrogant actor-to-be. He knew the risks of falling in love with a man like Mark, but nothing was to be done about it._

_Late nights at the fire slowly became tenser than comforting as Mark began to catch on to his friend's feelings. But like Celine, Mark enjoyed having fun with his possible lovers, skirting around sweets affections and preferring to leave Damien stumbling over his words as he made suggestive compliments towards his friends._

_Laughter would always follow behind Damien after he escaped Mark's suggestive jokes, face mortified and embarrassed as he walked back to his room._

_Perhaps he was too much like Celine._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been over a month sorry, haven't had motivation. hope you enjoyed !


	3. changes

A pair of glasses, left collecting dust on a small bedside table, the lenses old and thin, the wired frames darkened in places. 

Damien awoke on a bed, much softer than he'd expected. He could vaguely remember William's fondness for hard mattresses, not unlike a rock. A soft light emitted from a lamp sat just beside the pair of glasses, rays bouncing off the wood floor and settling comfortably in the closed curtains.

The room that Damien found himself lying in was warm and small, a quiet hum coming from underneath him. Rays of moonlight cast over the bedsheets that he was so gently tucked into, and a dark night sky was just barely visible through a crack in the curtains. 

A small huff of breath caught Damien's attention as he caught sight of William, asleep in a large chair across the room. The unseemly wig was nowhere to be found, and his long dark curls lay across his eyes, arms crossed over his chest.

Exhaustion still gripped Damien tightly as he stared calmly at his friend. It seemed that no amount of sleep would give him peace. But the stillness of this unfamiliar room was peace enough for now.

Letting his head fall back against the pillows, he looked up at the ceiling, eyes barely open. This would not be the last time Damien thought back to Celine's purgatory and longed for it. It would be a monotony that he would miss. 

"Are you awake, old friend?" William's voice was close to a whisper, slightly hoarse from his sleep. Damien lifted his head and shifted just enough to prop himself up on the bed frame.

"Hello, Will."

Time passed slowly as William and Damien caught up with each other, both men telling their stories of the time they spent apart. William seemed far more aloof and carefree than Damien, as the other man has closed himself off and become colder. 

"And Celine, had she tried to come with you?" William asked, leaning forward with his hands under his chin and propped up with his elbows on his knees.

"I told her to stay behind, to sleep." Damien answered, toying with a stray thread in his blanket. "She needed to rest, and let me make my own decisions, you know?" 

"Of course!" William nodded his head vigorously, yet obviously unfocused on what they were talking about. He continued to speak about his "wonderful idea" of making a television programme. 

Damien found himself getting angry, furious even. William wasn't who he once was. He wasn't the bright military man or even the eccentric Colonel anymore. His mind would wander onto fantastical ideas and was sickeningly forgiving. The idea of revenge was abhorrent to this new William. 

Damien wasn't the same either. He no longer felt like the softspoken mayor or leader that he once was. He knew that on some level, he wasn't the same. He was fuelled by his hatred and need for revenge. 

That manor warped the two men into versions of themselves that were unlike anything they could have imagined.

~  
_Third year in university. Third year of scandals, late night study sessions and embarrassing late night hookups._

_Being the quiet unassuming law-student, Damien had only one of those. Reading glasses hanging around his neck and heavy books tucked underneath his arms, the law-student sprinted through his campus in a whirl. Knocking other students aside, Damien crashed into his dorm, panting heavily._

_Stood in the living area was Celine, William and Mark, all staring at him in confusion._

_Despite his usual reservations about dignity and pride, Damien dropped his books and launched himself at his sister, much to her surprise._

_"Uh, Damien-!" Her next words were muffled by her twin's arms which were thrown around her as he held her tight._

_"I missed you, so much" Damien muttered, his head resting on her shoulder. The sister relaxed and laughed, hugging him back even tighter._

_"I would never leave you three that long without me," Celine laughed, shoving him off after a few seconds. "What would you do without me?"_

_With the infamous Celine back to wreak havoc, there was surprisingly less bickering between Mark and William than Damien had expected. Usually when his sister arrived to visit, his two friends would argue over the simplest of things, from the weather to what type of flower was her favourite. Celine found it endearing while Damien found it laughable._

_Damien couldn't help but notice Mark's unusual closeness to him throughout Celine's visit. His friend would often favour Damien's company over Celine's and offer to help study, which he never had done before._

_It felt oddly nice and comforting. While William was out chasing Celine's tail on her last night in town, Damien found himself lying on the sofa with Mark, his friend's hand in his hair._

_"Why didn't you spend time with Celine?" Damien asked quietly, eyelids shut against the dim firelight. "It's her last day with us for a while now... why would you stay here with me?" Mark's movements slowed for a second and he let out a breath._

_"I'd rather spend every day with you. You're my best friend, Damien."_


End file.
